Some question the Harrisburg police chief's statement that the city doesn't have a problem with pit bulls.

Betsy Davenny walks past blood on the back steps of her Manada Street house in Harrisburg on Wednesday, June 1, following the killing of her wirehaired Dachshund, Hollywood earlier in the day by two pit bulls. ANDY COLWELL, The Patriot-News

Harrisburg's police chief might not think the city has a problem with loose pit bulls, but the five staples in 12-year-old Jordon Logan's left leg seem to show otherwise.

Jordon was riding his bicycle home Sunday night after playing basketball at the Radnor Street playground when a brindled pit bull chased him and latched its jaw around his leg. He was able to get away by kicking and punching the dog, but not without a trip to the emergency room and an upcoming series of painful rabies shots.

"It [upsets me] because it could have been a lot worse," Jordon's mother, Ebony Crawford, said as she put a bandage over his wound before leaving for work Friday. "The dog could have knocked him off his bike or put its jaw around his throat."

Three days later, on Wednesday, two pit bulls scaled a fence on the city's south side and mauled a wire-haired dachshund, Hollywood, who was in the backyard while its owner grocery shopped with her son. An animal control officer was able to wrangle one of the pit bulls, but the other remains loose.

And, in March, city police shot and killed two pit bulls that had threatened children and killed a cat.

But when asked Wednesday if the city had a pit bull problem, Police Chief Pierre Ritter denied it.

"Cats [are] the big thing now," the chief said. "Pit bulls, for a while they were a problem ... now I think it"s come under control."

Count Amy Kaunas among those mystified by Ritter's comments.

The executive director of the Humane Society of Harrisburg Area wondered what proof he has to back it up. Her figures show the city has an increasing problem with stray pit bulls.

Two hundred pit bulls came to the organization's shelter from the city last year, up 28 percent from 2007. To further point out the problem, there were nearly 20 times more stray pits that went to the shelter from the city last year compared with Lower Paxton Twp., which has a similar population.

Ritter didn't return a message seeking clarification on his comments, but his spokesman, Lt. Robert Fegan, said police are concerned about loose pit bulls.

But to illustrate that it's not just a city problem, Fegan gave a personal experience: He said he was jogging recently in a suburban neighborhood when a pit bull got out of its yard and lunged at him. He warned the dog's owner, the next day when he jogs by, he's going to be packing a .22 caliber handgun and promised to shoot it if it came at him again.

Needless to say, the dog wasn't running loose the next day, Fegan said.

If there's one thing both sides can agree on, it's a huge chunk of the responsibility falls on the dog owners.

Pit bulls aren't inherently violent, Kaunas said. Many pits that came through the shelter were adopted into families with small children and other animals and lived happily ever after, she said.

But those aren't the dogs you read about in the newspaper. The pit bulls who get the most publicity are the ones whose owners who train them to be aggressive, Kaunas said. They'll take a litter of pit bulls, throw bait in the center, see which male and female attack it first, then breed those two.

It's called "backyard breeding," and it's a vicious cycle, she said. Having a pit bull is cool. It's a status symbol in urban neighborhoods. Having the biggest, most vicious pit on the block? Well, that's even better, Kaunas said.

Police have said there's no evidence in the city of organized dogfighting, as in the kind that landed Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick in prison. Kaunas said the key word is "organized." Street fighting among pits is common in the city. She sees the evidence in the scars on the dogs that come to her shelter.

The Humane Society is trying to help people be more responsible for their pets. It's offering spay and neuter vouchers this summer for anyone in the city with a pit bull. It's joining with area health clinics to provide discounted rabies and other shots.

But it can only do so much, Kaunas said. At some point, the onus falls on the owner to make sure the dog doesn't get loose, that it has tags, it's microchipped and it's trained not to attack.

She offered this example: While driving a few years ago, Kaunas saw a loose pit bull threading traffic on the highway until it got hit by a car. Kaunas stopped, scooped the pooch up and took it to the shelter where vets stabilized its leg.

The pit's owner came by a few days later to pick up her dog. The Humane Society requested a substantially discounted fee of $35 for the work it did, basically saving the dog's life. The owner wouldn't pay it. They asked if she'd be willing to do a payment plan. She again said no.

Thirty-five bucks amounts to a large bag of food for many dog owners. If the woman didn't have that relatively small amount of cash to pay for her dog's treatment, Kaunas wondered what else that animal being was deprived of.

But having an owner come forward to claim their pit, especially when it's involved in violence, is rare.

Like in the case of Wednesday's mauling, the owner likely knows they would face civil and criminal penalties.

So, what happens? The agency is saddled with another pit bull state law requires it to keep for 48 hours, test its aggression level and either adopt it out or have it euthanized. Only a few pits that fail the aggression tests are humanely put down, and the agency does everything in its power to make sure a dog gets into a loving home, Kaunas said.

"What's the incentive?" Kaunas asked of pit bull owners coming forward to claim their dogs. "It's not worth it for them, so they just let it go and find another one. They're disposable. In the minds of these individuals, they're garbage.'

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